A brutal end to innocence

I came home from DC to find the Aquarium breathing heavily with dying, decomposing seaweed. The local seaweed just does not seem to do well in the 72-degree waters, and no matter how much I try to cool the Aquarium, the ambient temperature always creeps back up to 72ºF. All the animals love it, but the plants suffocate. I really need to go get some warm-water plants. Either that, or a cooling system.

And in my absence, despite Andres' tender loving care, they had made a royal mess. Detritus scattered everywhere, the Mexican Sponge keeled over on its side, the White Coral fallen and half-buried in the sand... no, just a mess!

What are you going to do. The entire universe tends toward chaos.

But I was delighted to see that the smaller hermit crab had taken up residence in the bright orange shell I had placed in the Aquarium some weeks back, in the hopes that one day he would find it. And today he did! Perched demurely atop the edge of the Mexican Sponge, he looked all of a million dollars in his new outfit. I wanted to take a picture of him, but I was busy with client work and the afternoon ran away with me.

That decision I would soon live to regret.

* * *

Later tonight, Andres and I went out for dinner at Bistro Basque, our favorite watering hole. It's a French-Basque tapas and restaurant, great atmosphere, gorgeous décor, and the food easily the best in town. We had a lovely evening. It was the end of a long week, spring had finally arrived, and downtown was buzzing with people thrilled to pieces they can finally wear shorts.

We had little idea of the horrific sight that awaited us at home.

I had turned the Aquarium's light off before we left, as it was nighttime. When we returned, all I wanted to do is snuggle up with a book and relax. Just a last little peek, I thought. Just to say good-night to my babies since I'd been away for a few days. So I peered in, and there in the darkness I saw a shrimp with something very strange in its front claws. I couldn't make it out. I wasn't sure if it was entering or exiting, if you catch my drift.

"Andres, there's something really weird. Something's going on with one of the shrimp."

Andres had already settled into his fly-tying mode; tomorrow before dawn he was going out to flyfish for striped bass.

"Hmm-mm."

"No, really. There's som–"

I had turned on the light. The shrimp was devouring something, that was clear, but what in heaven's name? Then my blood froze. It was one of the hermit crabs. I scanned the Aquarium floor... and there it was, the bright orange shell the hermit had worn just a few hours prior, lying empty on the sand.

"He's eating the hermit crab! He's killed him!"

"Something else did," said Andres, absorbed with his flies. "Something had to pull him out his shell."

"But what?"

"That's a good question. Maybe one of the worms? Shrimp aren't hunters, they're scavengers."

Hunters, scavengers, whatever. The bloody shrimp was eating the hermit crab, and the crab was still alive. Immediately I plunged in a long, thick wire that I shaped specially to clean the Aquarium, and tried to pry the hermit crab out of the shrimp's grasp. The shrimp freaked, darting back and forth in frenzied determination to hang on to dinner. Of course I didn't want to hurt him, so I was careful, but firm. No crab for you mate, sorry.

He did finally drop it, but the crab was barely moving. I waited, baited breath. He really was still alive. He was trying to get up, but couldn't do it. He was missing a front claw and some of his legs, and his bottom was a little messed up, clearly from the bites. Weak and badly battered, he couldn't even stand up against the light current produced by the filter. He lay there bobbing back and forth in the current.

I moved the orange shell next to him, to see if he musters the energy to climb back in and recuperate.

Ah, but here comes another shrimp, licking his chops. A quick whisk of the wire and he's gone. But here comes another... chase him away too. Good heavens. The crab is probably on his way out, if they're smelling him from everywhere.

He managed to climb into an open muscle shell nearby, to rest. I looked away for a second to tell Andres he's safe now, but in that split-second a shrimp had plucked the hapless crab and was spiriting him away to a safe place to finish him off. I chased the shrimp with the wire across the Aquarium, and finally he dropped him. The crab floated down toward the Aquarium floor, where more shrimp immediately converged on him. Keeping them all at bay, I didn't even see the Silverside. In a blink of an eye the Silverside had the crab by his bottom, sucking him in with all her might, her mouth open as wide as it could go. Only the crab's legs and eyes were sticking out of the fish's mouth.

And because she's a fish and not bound to crawling, she easily won the battle for the crab. The shrimp and I lost.

It was at that point that I made the gut-wrenching decision to document this horrifying end of an innocent little hermit crab. I bowed to Nature's brutal discipline, and set up my camera. Here is one of the to-be-expected-out-of-focus shots of the Silverside darting about the Aquarium digesting the crab alive:

After a few minutes of this, the Silverside decided this meal was simply too big and expelled the crab. As he floated down, now officially dead, his belly partially digested, he was swiftly swept up by a shrimp, who was in turn immediately pounced upon by other shrimp, and finally, emerging victorious, climbed up on the oxygen plant to savor his prize.

Yes, dear readers, this is clear and incontrovertible photographic evidence of a hermit crab being digested by a shrimp. And for a final look, for those of you intrigued by the stunning ammorality of Nature, here is a close-up view of this shot:

There are millions of hermit crabs in the ocean, millions of shrimp, and millions of silversides. But I had gotten to know this little crab, and loved him along with all the other inhabitants of the Aquarium. He will always be missed.

And we won't ever know who or what actually pulled him out of his shell ...